1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to poultry dressing devices and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for scalding poultry on a continuous basis to promote feather muscle relaxation in order to facilitate of the feathers from the poultry during a subpicking sequent picking operation and to reduce the amount of bacteria present on poultry exiting the picking device.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known to provide a poultry scalding device which utilizes streams of scalding liquid that are permitted to fall upon birds as they are advanced submerged through a scalding tank. The force of such liquid being exceedingly great, the feathers of the poultry are subjected to a rather violent scalding action, simplifying the subsequent removal thereof by conventional feather picking machines. One problem commonly encountered in devices of this type resides in the failure of the cascading scalding water to properly scald the neck of the bird due at least partially to the fact that the neck of the bird is protected from falling liquid by the remainder of the bird and thus the water adjacent the neck of the bird is not agitated sufficiently to carry out a proper scald of the neck area.
In these known scalding devices, water is delivered to a tank at an outlet end of a conveyor path and is drained from the tank at a conveyor inlet such that a water flow path is defined which is opposite to the direction of travel of the poultry through the first section of the scalder apparatus. In this manner, each bird is introduced into the apparatus at the inlet where the water is dirty and travels into cleaner water when entering the final stage of the scalder.
Another problem known to exist in scalding devices of the conventional type is that it is possible for birds to aspirate dirty water while passing through the inlet region of the tank since the birds are not always completely dead when they enter the scalding device. When aspiration occurs, bacteria from the dirty water is allowed to get into the bird causing the bird to be dirtier than if no such aspiration of the scalding water had occurred.